Isaiah Edwards
Isaiah Edwards is a mountain man, and the first person Caroline and Charles Ingalls while traveling to find land for a home, there was to many peoplemoving into the backwoods of Wisconsin and not enough food for everyone. In result, many of the residents moved. Isaiah has lived in the mountains before, and has used his keen sense of direction to help the townspeople of Walut Grove in emergencies. Such as in the Blizzard, Edwards' stays outside with two of his children, Carl and Alicia. Early on it is found out that Mr. Edwards can't read in the episode, "Mr. Edwards' Homecoming." This served to be a problem when John Jr. and Isaiah went hunting, John gave him a letter about how he felt. Mr. Edwards couldn't read this which presented a problem, the letter was of some importance. Later, Isaiah swallowed his pride and began to learn how to read. Pilot Movie The Ingalls family first met Mr. Edwards when they settled in Kansas and Edwards was their closest neighbor. Edwards helped Charles build their house and formed a close bond with Laura and taught her how to spit (much to the horror of Caroline who didn't trust him.) Edwards later risked his life by delivering Christmas presents to the Ingalls during a blizzard with nothing but his long-johns on. This made Caroline trust and respect him. When the Ingalls are forced by the government to leave Kansas a teary Edwards was forced to say goodbye to a deeply upset Laura while Charles and Caroline thanked him and gave him a few of their unneeded possessions (such as a cow). Season 1 While Charles was in Mankato picking up things for Mr. Oleson he bumped into a drunken Edwards in a saloon. After sobering him up Charles convinced him to come to Walnut Grove and visit the family. Edwards then promised Laura that he would stay in Walnut Grove and Charles helped him get a job at Hanson's Mill and Edwards lived with the family for a while. Caroline tried to set him and widow Grace Snider up together however he was able to charm her all by himself. A major problem in him and Grace's relationship however was that Edwards didn't believe in God. Caroline found out this is because he was deeply depressed because he thought God let his wife and child die of Smallpox. However he came to ignore this and went to Church with Grace. A while later Mr. Edwards took care of Mary, Laura and Carrie when Caroline went with Charles to Mankato. Edwards told the children many tall tales and fed them the most oddest of foods (such as a rattlesnake stew). Season 2 Mountain Fever Mr. Edwards has had two encounters with Mountain Fever, the first time it wiped out his wife and daughter. The second time his daughter lived with the help of Laura Ingalls (she thought she caught it after having spots on her. It turned out to be poison ivy). A possibility of how Edwards' brought this to Alicia could be because he drink out of the same bottle of a man with the fever. Edwards' never found out about this, the man offered Edwards' a drink after seeing the only other thing in the area was coffee. Season 10 Edwards, Isaiah